World Highlights

¤ Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Russia has a new proposal to curb Iran's nuclear programs, a day after Washington rejected an idea to allow Tehran atomic research that diplomats said Moscow had floated.

"There is no compromise new proposal," Mr Lavrov said at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington.

¤ Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to reduce spending on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank after an Israeli election his party is expected to win, underscoring plans to quit isolated enclaves.

While Mr Olmert outlined a change in government policy, his defence minister stuck to a tough line against Hamas, threatening to target its prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, if the militant group resumed attacks in Israel.

¤ A top Japanese diplomat said that Japan may have to take tough measures if North Korea fails to respond in good faith to efforts to normalise ties, but he stopped short of endorsing calls for sanctions now.

Japan and North Korea are locked in a bitter dispute over Pyongyang's kidnapping of Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies. The two sides held talks in Beijing last month on normalising diplomatic ties, but didn't make any progress.

¤ Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear weapons and faces "meaningful consequences" if it persists in defying the international community, Vice President Dick Cheney said.

Mr Cheney, speaking to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, also reaffirmed that the United States was keeping all options on the table - including military force - in its determination to prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms.

¤ Three Christian peace activists held hostage in Iraq were shown in a video aired on Al Jazeera television, but the fourth captive, an American, was not seen.

The men, who were kidnapped in November, called on Gulf Arab leaders and their own governments to help free them, the Qatar-based station said.

¤ The US government's leading lawyer defended the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, saying detainees there were granted state-of-the-art health care, good food and "unprecedented legal protection".

Responding to complaints by the United Nations, human rights groups, religious leaders and some national governments, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the camp was entirely lawful and essential to the protection of the United States.